Molly Parker: I hope D.C. not like ‘Cards’

Perhaps no question gets asked more of “House of Cards” actors than, “How much does the show resemble the real Washington, D.C.?”

Actress Molly Parker, who plays Democratic congresswoman Jacqueline Sharp — who (spoiler alert) replaces Francis Underwood as House majority whip when he ascends to the vice presidency — has no idea, but she has some hopes.

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“I don’t know if it’s like Washington, but I sure hope not, and I assume not.”

Parker, who joined the cast during the Netflix series’s second season, said she was drawn to the show for its “really strong tone” and compelling performances.

“It’s about power and control and, as an actor, every scene you play in this show is about power, regardless of what’s being talked about. It’s about who in the room has more power. And, presumably, to set the show in Washington, as opposed to any other city, seems appropriate, because that’s really what the dynamics of the show are about. But then you can also watch the show from this sort of Shakespearean perspective, that it’s Richard III and Lady Macbeth, and it’s coming from those places as well.”

Parker, who is Canadian, has lived in the U.S. for more than a decade. She says that while she’s “aware of American politics, and I pay attention to them,” the show “was an opportunity to really learn about how, specifically, legislation gets made and laws get passed, as opposed to where I come from.” She brushed up on the biographies of such female politicians as Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice and Nancy Pelosi.

“None of those politicians are any kind of model for this character. She’s something else entirely. But it did give me a lot of information about what it costs, and I thought a lot about the kind of person you have to be to give that much of your life to your work.”

Parker says her character “is unlike any other congressman.”

“She comes from military intelligence, she comes from this other place. She’s an outsider. She’s single. She doesn’t have a family. I don’t think we see that yet. … For me, part of what’s interesting about this character and this show is that here’s this woman who’s come up through this patriarchal system, the military, and she’s smart and capable of being taken seriously in a room full of powerful men, and she doesn’t have a family, and she’s not a mother, and she’s unapologetic about it.”

As for the show’s popularity — especially among politicos — Parker says she’s unsure what, if anything, it says about how Americans think about their government.

“I think that, in times of war, traditionally Hollywood has made movies that were light and fun and comedic,” she said. “However, I think it’s simplistic to say, well, this must indicate that the popularity of the show, which paints Washington in these negative terms, must indicate this dissatisfaction with Washington. That said, we have a Congress that’s done very, very little. What I think one of the pleasures of watching this show is just that these people are so bad and that, secretly, viewers are interested in seeing power play out at that deliciously sinister level, and so it’s campy in that sense.”